Fired Up

I hate Cystic Fibrosis.

A very haunting thing showed up on our doorstep Sunday Morning. We get the paper every Sunday. I'm accustomed (at least in football season) to promising myself I'll read it, but never getting around to it. Well, this weekend was the same, until Alicia saw what was on the front page. I didn't read the article right away because I saw how powerful it was and the effect it had on Alicia.

Well, that was Sunday, and last night I finally read it. Now I'm angry. My daughter will one day, unless there is a cure, need a double lung transplant like Cassie had. Hopefully, her body won't have problems accepted the lungs like Cassie's did. I said that too positively. Her body REJECTED the lungs. I feel sorry for her, and horrified at the possibilities for my own daughter's life.

I live in a lot of denial about my daughter's disease. I almost feel cheated sometimes because it has held us up a few times here and there. Reading that article was good for me because it brought me back down to earth. I need to stop being selfish about the issue and fight. Fight with all of the fatherly drive in me to try and end this disease. Fight like hell so that maybe my daughter won't have tubes strung all around her because her lungs can't process enough oxygen without help. Tubes because her body can't process food correctly. Tubes...

Our fight is for all of those with cystic fibrosis. So many other people are better at it than I am. They raise more money than I do and raise more awareness as well. My only response is that I will contribute what I can. For my daughter, for Cassie, and for the 30,000 other CF patients in the United States and several other thousands outside of our country.

Keep fighting!